Monday, February 24, 2014

Game of Thrones - Legacy Collection DAENERYS!

Game of Thrones: Legacy Collection #5 - Daenerys Targaryen - Funko 2014
Daenerys Stormborn of House Targaryen, Queen of the Andals and the First Men, Khaleesi of the Great Grass Sea, Breaker of Chains, and Mother of Dragons! Daenerys really shines out among the amazing ensemble of characters in HBO's Game of Thrones. She is introduced as a meek and feeble highborn girl who is being traded into a political marriage by her domineering brother. Throughout the course of five (massive) books and three seasons of the show, we've seen her grow into a powerful character. She is strong-willed, intelligent, deceptive, compassionate, and angry. The mainland of Westeros is basically unaware of this young girl a continent away amassing a huge army and raising three dragons in order to invade and reclaim her throne. Her storylines are some of my favorites amidst the complex web of characters in the series and I can't wait to read what happens next. Funko made a huge leap with this introductory Legacy Collection. While I had some technical issues with this figure, the detail and execution is admirable. It's very exciting to have a new company in the action figure arena.

While she doesn't look exactly like actress Emilia Clarke, she's pretty close. From some angles I look at her and I think the likeness is spot-on, but other times I'm less convinced.

Daenerys comes with one of her pet dragons, Drogon. This is roughly the size the dragons were at the end of season one and the beginning of season two.

Drogon mounts to her via a peg on his foot and an anchor hole in her right shoulder.

Okay, now on to the problems with this figure. The first thing I noticed was how her torso fell apart as I was opening the package. Daenerys has a ball-joint below her ribcage for torso articulation. Something is a little wrong here because it pops out very very easily. Perhaps the peg that the ball is attached to need to be longer, or maybe the ball itself needs to be slightly larger. It's not a huge deal, but it's an area for improvement.

Both my arms broke off at the elbow. In all the pictures above, her right elbow has been glued back together. then during my photo session, her left elbow broke as well. (The photos at the end of this review are all side angles to hide the missing limb :)). Here's the deal: The hinge joints of the elbows worked fine. But the "eyelet post" that comes out of her bicep (to provide and anchor for the forearm to clamp onto) seemed like it should rotate, providing a swivel articulation as well as the hinge. Mine did not want to move. I tried the hot water trick but nothing worked and I ended up twisting off the pegs. I honestly believe they were supposed to swivel. Based on photos I've seen from other reviews, and the fact that my figure's forearms were not posed in a natural way out of the package, I think this is just a severe case of stuck joints and my impatience.

The final issue I had was with a really loose joint. She has a lot of articulation: Ball jointed wrists, waist, neck, and hips, swivel and hinge shoulders, questionable elbows, doubles cut knees, swivel calves, and rocker ankles. It's very impressive and shows a ton of potential. My issue was with her left knee. When locked in standing position, it was fine, but once the knee "clicked" out of the straight-leg pose, her lower leg had no friction and would flop everywhere. This really limited the posing potential, but could probably be fixed with some heat and pressure.

I don't consider any of these issues dealbreakers. I know that this first series was rushed to Barnes & Noble stores to coincide with the Season 3 DVD release. These three QC issues are something I expect Funko to remedy in future figures. They have completely earned my trust in that department over the years, and I honestly consider this first wave a bit of a "trial run" for the Legacy Collection. The issues I had won't effect her displaying potential in my opinion and am still very impressed with this figure and not deterred from buying future Legacy ladies.

8 comments:

Dany's elbows do swivel. This first batch of GOT Legacy figs has had lots of breakage issues. It's best to soften the plastic before posing them out of the package. Either by placing them in near boiling water for a minute or so, or by putting them in a shoebox with a hole cut in it for a hairdryer head to fit in.

That's fantastic news! I may try to pick up a replacement figure later on, but considering how likely we are to have multiple Daenerys figures (beyond the two already shown), I think I might just keep the glued version as is. I pretty much positioned the arms the way I would have her displayed anyway. Another method I have heard mentioned but do NOT recommend is using a heat gun. I have a heat gun and it always tends to blister the paint before freeing the plastic. Thanks for the info!

hmm my reply from last week never posted. I had commented about how some companies seem to have a personaility all their own. Not related to a spokesperson or figurehead or anything that obvious. But rather by the products they put out, dedication to fans, and corporate goodwill gestures like replacing defective figures. I love Funko and I think I'll be standing by them for a long time.

Funko is replacing defective figures. If you email allison@funko.com you can get the ball rolling. Basically she will send you a form and you can send the broken figures in and they will replace them with ones from the new batch that is shipping in April.